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Nancy Pelosi was born in March 1940 in Baltimore,
Maryland, the youngest of six children. Her father, Thomas
D'Alesandro, Jr., served as both a U.S. congressman in Maryland
and as the mayor of Baltimore.

In 1962 Pelosi graduated from Trinity College in Washington, DC, and
then interned for Maryland's
Democratic
senator Daniel Brewster before moving, with her husband, to San
Francisco in 1969.

Following her relocation, Pelosi became increasingly involved in
politics. In 1977 she was elected Democratic Party chairwoman for
northern California. Around that time, she befriended Phillip
Burton, the Democrat congressman representing California’s Eighth
District (which includes most of San Francisco). When Burton died in
1983, his wife, Sala, succeeded him in office. Three years later she
was diagnosed with cancer and chose Pelosi to be her successor
within the party, thereby assuring Pelosi the backing of the
Burtons’ political allies.

Mrs. Burton died on February 1, 1987, just a month after she had
begun her second full term in office. In a special election to
determine who would fill Burton's now-empty House seat, Pelosi
narrowly defeated San Francisco supervisor Harry Britt and took
office on June 2, 1987. Since then, she has been re-elected every
two years.

In 2001 Pelosi became House Minority Whip. The following year, she
was named Democratic Leader of the House of Representatives, thereby
becoming the first woman in American history to lead a major party
in the U.S. Congress. After the landslide Democrat victories in the
November 2006 mid-term elections, Pelosi was elected Speaker of the
House.

In January 2007, after President Bush had announced his plan to
increase troop levels in Iraq in an effort to stem the violence
there, Pelosi, along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,
condemned
the plan: "Adding more combat troops will only endanger more
Americans and stretch our military to the breaking point for no
strategic gain." Instead, Pelosi called for "the phased redeployment
of our forces in the next four to six months."

Contrary to Pelosi's prediction, the troop surge proved to be
immensely successful. Nonetheless, in February 2008 Pelosi
declared the surge a “failure” that had “not produced the
desired effect.”

In April 2008 Pelosi
traveled to Damascus to discuss foreign policy issues with
Syrian President Bashar Assad. She made this trip against the wishes
of President Bush, who
said
that it sent "mixed messages" and undermined U.S. policy vis a vis
what he
called "a state sponsor of terror." Former State Department
official Robert F. Turner saw Pelosi's Damascus trip as a
felonious violation of the Logan
Act of 1798, which calls for a prison sentence of up to three
years for any American who, "without authority of the United
States," tries to influence a foreign government's behavior as
regards any "disputes or controversies with the United States."

After
her trip to Syria, Pelosi
told
reporters: "[Our] meeting with the president [Assad] enabled us to
communicate a message from [Israeli] Prime Minister Olmert that
Israel was ready to engage in peace talks as well." But in fact,
Olmert had conveyed no such sentiment. Israel's position remained
what it always had been: its participation in peace talks with Syria
was contingent
upon the latter ending its support for terrorism.

In July 2008 Pelosi characterized President Bush as “a
total failure” who had lost “all credibility with the American
people on the war, on the economy, on energy, [and any other
issue].”

In April 2009, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), a
non-partisan government watchdog group, named Pelosi and Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid as its 2008 “Porkers
of the Year” because of what CAGW viewed as their consistent
record of fiscal irresponsibility.

During the Bush administration, Pelosi characterized waterboarding
-- an enhanced-interrogation technique which the CIA had used on a
handful of high-value terrorist suspects -- as a form of torture
that was wholly unacceptable to use under any circumstances.
Moreover, she called for punitive action against those in the Bush
administration who had deemed waterboarding appropriate. But in May
2009 it was learned that the CIA had actually briefed Pelosi as
early as September 2002 about its use of waterboarding, and that
Pelosi had never previously raised any objection. Pelosi
respond to those reports by accusing the CIA of "misleading the
Congress of the United States." "They mislead us all the time," she
said.

In December 2009 Pelosi led at least 20 members of Congress (and
many of their spouses and children) on an all-expenses-paid trip to
attend a global-warming summit in Copenhagen, Denmark. The
delegation was so large, that three military jets were required to
transport its members. A number of senators and staffers also made
the trip, courtesy of taxpayer dollars, via commercial airliners,
and many of them stayed at 5-star hotels in Copenhagen. Although
Pelosi was personally responsible for deciding who went the summit,
she subsequently refused to answer any reporters' questions
regarding the cost of the trip.

According to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information
Act, during 2008-2009 Pelosi incurred expenses of some $2.1 million
for her use of Air Force jets for travel -- including $101,429 for
in-flight expenses such as food and alcohol. She regularly used Air
Force aircraft to travel to her district at an average cost of
$28,210.51 per flight. Of 103 Pelosi-led congressional delegations
during the two-year period, 31 trips included members of her family.

In January 2010, when Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid were leading the
rancorous process by which Democrats were seeking to pass healthcare
reform, Pelosi
articulated her determination to enact the new legislation: “You
go through the gate. If the gate’s closed, you go over the fence. If
the fence is too high, we’ll pole-vault in. If that doesn’t work,
we’ll parachute in. But we’re going to get health care reform passed
for the American people.”

In March 2010, Pelosi stated that she wished to
avoid a House vote on healthcare reform because
the legislation would surely be defeated in that chamber.
“Nobody wants to vote for the Senate bill,” she said. Thus she
supported the
so-called "Slaughter solution." Under this plan, the House would
vote on a procedural motion, that is, the “rule” that is supposed to
govern debate on a matter going before the House. In this case a
“self-executing rule” would be used that would “deem” the Senate
version of ObamaCare to have been passed. Thus lawmakers would be
able to vote to approve the Senate version of the
healthcare legislation -- complete with unpopular add-ons such as Senator
Ben Nelson’s "Cornhusker Kickback" and
Senator Mary Landrieu’s "Louisiana Purchase" -- and then be
able to tell their constituents that technically all they had
done was approve a procedural motion.

Also in March 2010, Pelosi told the American public that healthcare
reform would "be very, very exciting. But we have to pass the bill
so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the
controversy."

That same month, Pelosi
made reference to the fact that the healthcare bill she was
seeking to pass was merely the first phase of a larger effort to
bring about ever-greater government control over the American
medical system: "My biggest fight has been between those who wanted
to do something incremental and those who wanted to do something
comprehensive. We won that fight, and once we kick through this
door, there'll be more legislation to follow."

In May 2010, Pelosi
said the
healthcare legislation was "an entrepreneurial bill, a bill that
says to someone, if you want to be creative and be a musician or
whatever, you can leave your work, focus on your talent, your skill,
your passion, your aspirations because you will have health care.”

At the Catholic Community Conference on Capitol
Hill on May 6, 2010, Pelosi said
that she had told Catholic cardinals, archbishops, and bishops to
speak about the importance of comprehensive "immigration reform"
from their pulpits, and to tell their parishioners that "this is a
manifestation of our living the gospels." At the same event, Pelosi
suggested that her
religious beliefs influenced her public policy decisions on
issues such as immigration: "My favorite word is the Word, is the
Word.... And ... we have to give voice to what that means in terms
of public policy that would be in keeping with the values of the
Word.

In July 2010, Pelosi
stated that unemployemt insurance “is one of the biggest
stimuluses to the economy.” “Economists will tell you,” she
continued, “this money is spent quickly. It injects demand into the
economy and is job-creating. It creates jobs faster than almost any
other initiative you can name, because again, it is moneuy that is
needed for families to survive, and it is spent. So it has a double
benefit. It helps those who've lost their jobs, but it also is a job
creator.”

In August 2010, Pelosi
spoke out in favor of Faisal Abdul Rauf's Cordoba Initiative, a
project to build a 13-story, $100 million Islamic Center just 600
feet from Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. Criticizing opponents of
the project, Pelosi
said: "There is no question that there is a concerted effort to
make this a political issue by some. And I join those who have
called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being
funded [and] ginned up."

Pelosi, whose family has a net worth of more than $25 million, is
one of the wealthiest members of Congress. She is a member
of the socialist-leaning Progressive Caucus, to whose executive
committee she was
named in 2002. Here is a quick look at Pelosi's policies and
positions on key issues during her years in the House:

Abortion and the Rights of the Unborn:

In
November 1995,
September 1996,
March 1997,
April 2000,
June 2003, and
October 2003, Pelosi voted against legislation to ban (except
where the mother’s safety might require it) the late-term abortion
procedure commonly known as partial-birth abortion. In
September 1995 she voted against banning the use of federal
funds for abortions at U.S. military facilities. In
June 2000 she voted in favor of permitting federal funds to pay
for abortions at U.S. prison facilities. In
February 2004 she voted against the Unborn Victims of Violence
Act, which proposed to make it an added criminal offense for someone
to injure or kill a fetus while carrying out a crime against a
pregnant woman. In
April 2005 she voted against notifying the parents of minors who
have obtained out-of-state abortions. In
December 2006 she voted NO on the Abortion Pain Bill, which
sought to ensure that women seeking an abortion are fully informed
regarding the pain experienced by their unborn child.

In an August 2008 appearance on the television talk show Meet the
Press, Pelosi was asked when she believed human life begins. She
responded:

“I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is
an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is
over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able
to make that definition … St. Augustine said at three months. We
don't know. The point is, is that it shouldn't have an impact on
the woman's right to choose.”

In
July 1996 and
July 2006 Pelosi voted against bills defining marriage strictly
as a legal union between one man and one woman. In
September 2004 she voted NO on a bill to prohibit same-sex
marriage.

Welfare:

Pelosi voted against the
Welfare Reform Act of 1996, which ultimately succeeded in
moving large numbers of people off of public assistance and into
jobs.

Education:

In November 1997 and August 1998, Pelosi voted against the
implementation of voucher programs designed to help low-income
families send their children to private schools if they wished. In
November 2001 she voted NO on allowing voluntary prayer in public
schools. Pelosi has received a
rating of 100% from the
National Education Association (NEA), America’s largest labor
union.

Crime:

In
April 1994 Pelosi voted YES on replacing the death penalty with
life imprisonment. In
June
2000 she voted YES on funding for alternative sentencing instead
of more prisons.

Illegal Immigration:

In
February 2005 Pelosi voted against funding for “Real ID”
legislation mandating higher standards for State drivers’ licenses
and identification documents. In
September 2006 she voted against a bill authorizing the
construction of 700 miles of double-layered fencing between the U.S.
and Mexico.
That same month, she voted against a bill that sought to affirm
the inherent right of state and local authorities to enforce federal
immigration laws. Pelosi is
rated 0% by the U.S. Border Control, signifying that her voting
record reflects an open-borders stance.

Fossil Fuels:

In
February and August 2001, Pelosi voted to keep Alaska’s Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) closed to oil drilling. As Speaker
of the House in 2008, she
refused to permit this issue to be debated on the House floor.
Explaining her unwavering opposition to oil exploration, she
said,
"I'm trying to save the planet; I'm trying to save the planet." In
October 2005 and
June 2006, Pelosi voted against the construction of new oil
refineries in the U.S.

Taxes:

In
March 2000 Pelosi voted NO on $46 billion in tax cuts for small
businesses. In
April 2001 she voted NO on eliminating the “death tax.” The
following month, she voted against a tax cut package of $958
billion over 10 years. In
October 2001 she voted NO on a $99 billion economic stimulus
package. In
April 2002 she voted against making President Bush’s 2001 tax
cuts permanent. In
May 2004 she voted against making permanent an increase in the
child tax credit. In
September 2004 she voted NO on providing a series of tax relief
measures. In
December 2005 she voted against retaining reduced tax rates on
capital gains and dividends.

Though she supported the
Clinton administration's military measures in Haiti, Kosovo, and
Bosnia, Pelosi opposed the 1991 and 2003 wars in Iraq (both of which
were led by Republican presidential administrations).

In October 2002 Pelosi voted against the joint congressional
resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq. “This is about
the Constitution," she declared. “It is about this Congress
asserting its right to declare war when we are fully aware what the
challenges are to us. It is about respecting the
United Nations and a multilateral approach, which is safer for
our troops.”

In October 2006 Pelosi
said: "If
we [the U.S. military] leave Iraq, then the insurgents will leave
Iraq, the terrorists will leave Iraq." On another occasion she
elaborated: "If the President wants to say the war in Iraq is
part of the war on terror, he's not right…The war on terror is the
war in Afganistan…. The jihadists in Iraq [will] stay there as long
as we're there. They're there because we're there."

In
May 2007 Pelosi voted in favor of an amendment to withdraw U.S.
troops from Iraq within 90 days. In
May and
June 2008 she voted NO to funding for military operations in
Iraq and Afghanistan.